What do you have in your Hands? John 6:1-14

John 6:1–14 (NIV) Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberius), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him (to stretch his faith), for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there).

11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. 12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.”

13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. 14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

• So you’ve got all these sort of characters in this great story.

• You’ve got 20, 25 thousand people that are going to get fed.

• You’ve got a little boy who’s given Jesus his lunch.

• You’ve got Jesus who multiplies it and does something miraculous with some barley loaves and some fish and…

• You’ve got the disciples who are sort of standing by…–Philip has his faith tested, stretched–Andrew who is bringing the boy to Jesus–All of them collecting leftovers and – John who’s the eyewitness giving us this

account.

• What do you have in your hands? Are you prepared to give it to Jesus? • Follow the example of the little boy.

• Play your part and experience the

miraculous.